Newsletter No. 438

5 1 《一百年的孤寂》，1982年，宋碧雲譯 One Hundred Years of Solitude, 1970, trans. Gregory Rabassa A lecturer in Spanish in the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, Dr. Leticia Vicente- Rasoamalala ’s first encounter with García Márquez was when she took up Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1981) at the age of 12. She recalls, ‘I was mesmerized by the plot, his use of suspense and the depiction of premonitions, the sixth sense. Also, the black and white suits respectively worn by the killer and the victim are highly symbolic.’ According to her, García Márquez wrote of magical moments in ordinary life, and of ghosts and omens. This has got to do with the fact that his grandmother, with whom the writer grew up as a child, was much preoccupied with ghosts and spirits, and apparitions and portents. The journalistic style he displays in Chronicle , and the political and social elements, would have come from his grandfather, who was active in politics. Professor Lee thinks that García Márquez’s impact is felt everywhere, as Latin American novels have been the driving force in fiction since the Second World War. The most important novels did not come from the UK, the US, Germany or France but from Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. Dr. Vicente- Rasoamalala adds, ‘García Márquez’s Spanish is in a more formal style and noted for the moderate use of Spanish Colombianisms. It is therefore more readily appreciated by Spanish speakers all over the world. He has influenced a generation of writers including Fernando Iwasaki in Peru, Francisco Goldman in the US, Salman Rushdie in the UK, Mo Yan in China, and Xi Xi in Hong Kong.’ Where should one begin? Professor Lee recommends Love in the Time of Cholera (1985), preferably in original Spanish or in English translation. Dr. Vicente- Rasoamalala thinks that there are many gems among his short stories and advises one to begin with his Collected Stories (1984). 「多年後，奧瑞里亞諾 • 布恩迪亞上校面對槍斃行刑 隊，將會想起父親帶他去找冰塊的那個遙遠的下午。」 1 這是1982年諾貝爾文學獎得主 加西亞 • 馬奎斯 名著 《百年孤寂》（1967）的首句，看似簡單的一句，包含三 種小說時間，把過去、現在和將來濃縮在一個時空內， 把寫實小說的境界打破了。小說是建基於幻想，時空不 應受限制，加西亞 • 馬奎斯的魔幻現實主義對當代小說 發展影響深遠。 加西亞 • 馬奎斯4月17日辭世，我們與兩位中大學者談談他的 貢獻。 早在加西亞 • 馬奎斯還未獲頒 諾貝爾獎之前，現任中大冼為 堅中國文化講座教授 李歐梵 教 授已開始閱讀他的著作，第一 本就是《百年孤寂》，並隨即 於1981年在台灣和內地發表了 一篇該書的書評。說起來，這 是華語文學界最早寫《百年孤 寂》的評論之一。後來武漢大 學出版的一份學報刊登了這篇 書評，竟然引起很大迴響，令人 開始認識魔幻現實主義。 李教授說：「我是研究中國現代文學的，五四運動帶來一個新 文學的重要傳統─現實主義，其中一項要求是描寫當代社會 的黑暗面。經過幾十年的演變，現實主義在內地變成政治教 條，名字也改成了社會主義現實主義，現實主義從而沒落，大 家都歌頌光明。八十年代初，內地的作家開始覺醒，意圖恢復 五四的傳統，新一代年輕作家都在摸索描寫現代社會文學寫作 方法，剛好我的書評進入他們的眼簾，而談的就是為甚麼現實 主義一定要描寫當代社會？為何不可以把現實主義的時空範疇 擴闊？用來解述的例子就是加西亞 • 馬奎斯。 「中國小說作家不多寫神話，反觀拉丁美洲的魔幻現實小說就 是把神話、歷史和現實結合在一起。我教中國現代文學，便常 引用這一點作教材。」 在中大語言學及現代語言系教授西班牙文化及語言課的 Vicente-Rasoamalala 博士，十二歲首次接觸加西亞 • 馬奎斯 的作品，那是中篇《預知死亡紀事》（1981），旋即被其獨特的 敘事手法、夢魘般的懸宕感，以及鮮明的意象吸引。據她說，加 西亞 • 馬奎斯筆下日常生活中的魔幻時刻，充塞着幽靈與凶兆， 這與他自小跟篤信神怪的外祖母長大有關；至於《預知死亡紀 事》的新聞敘述形式，則是受其活躍於政治的外祖父所影響。 李教授認為加西亞 • 馬奎斯影響力是世界性的，拉丁美洲小說 可能比英美小說更重要，因為二次大戰後，最有原創力的小說 不是來自英美或德法，而是拉丁美洲、非洲和東歐。Vicente- Rasoamalala博士又說：「加西亞 • 馬奎斯的文字典雅，間或 滲進哥倫比亞的西班牙用語，因而廣受全球各地的西班牙 語糸讀者歡迎。受他影響的作家不少，包括秘魯年青一代 的 Fernando Iwasaki 、美國的 Francisco Goldman 、英國的 Salman Rushdie 、中國的 莫言 和香港的 西西 。」 李教授建議未拜讀過加西亞 • 馬奎斯作品的人，最好先讀 《愛在瘟疫蔓延時》（1985）的原文版本，要不便是英譯版。 Vicente-Rasoamalala博士認為加西亞 • 馬奎斯的短篇也是上 乘之作，建議讀者可先從他的 Collected Stories （1984）入手。 李歐梵教授 Prof. Leo Lee A Hundred Years of Enchantment 文壇異釆 百年不孤 Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. 1 The above opens One Hundred Years of Solitude , probably the most famous novel by Gabriel García Márquez , winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature. The past, the present and the future are collapsed and condensed in this beguilingly simple sentence, calling into question the meaning of realism in fiction. In the realm of creative writing, fantasy and imagination take flight and have little regard of the time-space continuum. The art of fiction is never the same after García Márquez’s brand of magic realism. The maestro passed away on 17 April. Two scholars from CUHK pay their tribute by reminiscing on his works. Long before García Márquez had attained Nobel stature, Prof. Leo Lee , now Sin Wai Kin Professor of Chinese Culture, was reading his works, one of which was One Hundred Years of Solitude . He published a review of the novel in 1981 in Taiwan and in China, which was probably one of the first in Chinese. The review was later re-printed in an academic journal of Wuhan University to enthusiastic reception. The term magic realism began to enter literary vocabulary on Chinese soil. Professor Lee says, ‘The May Fourth Movement has ushered in realism, demanding the portrayal of the dark sides of society. After many years it eventually formed an alliance on the mainland with political dogmas in the form of socialist realism. People talked instead of the bright sides of things. The pendulum again swung in the early eighties, when young writers, in attempting to revive the May Fourth tradition, were probing for a way forward in modernist writing. My review article arrived at the right time and opened their eyes to possibilities other than shackling realism with contemporary society, suggesting that realism could be distorted and remolded. García Márquez provided a vivid example. ‘Chinese novelists don’t usually make much use of myths. In contrast, magic realist novels from Latin America roll myth, history and reality all into one. I use that in my modern Chinese literature classes.’ Leticia Vicente-Rasoamalala 博士 Dr. Leticia Vicente-Rasoamalala No. 438, 19.5.2014